NIDA research monograph最新文献

Levels of hardcore drug use have been especially difficult to estimate because of the relative rarity of the behavior, the difficulty of locating hardcore drug users, and the tendency to underreport stigmatized behavior. This chapter presents a new application of ratio estimation, combining sample data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) together with population counts of the number of persons arrested in the past year from the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the number of persons in drug treatment programs in the past year from the National Drug and Alcoholism Treatment Unit Survey (NDATUS). The population counts serve as a benchmark accounting for undercoverage and underreporting of hard drug users.

Drug use among different populations such as household members, students, and arrestees vary substantially and the accuracy of their self-reports may be questionable. The accuracy of prevalence estimates based on self-report data can be monitored by chemical drug testing of biological specimens such as urine, saliva, sweat, and hair. Each biological specimen is unique and offers a somewhat different pattern of information regarding drug use over time. Also, each specimen has unique strengths and weaknesses regarding the type of information obtained from drug testing. The performance characteristics of the assay methodology may also be important. The validation of self-report data by drug testing must be performed with careful consideration of the limitations imposed by the testing methodology and the biological specimen.

Hair testing is only used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when other information exists that indicates drug use and can remove a person from suspicion or associate them with criminal activity. The detection of cocaine in hair has been the FBI's first priority in hair testing for drugs of abuse because of its prevalence. Several cases when hair testing was used are reported in this chapter. Further, analysis of over 100 samples was performed on hair obtained from a medical examiner's random autopsy collection. Sixty-five percent of the samples tested positive for cocaine or opiates. The results of hair testing for drugs of abuse were found to be consistent with autopsy toxicology reports. The analysis of hair washes and nails from the autopsy samples suggests external contamination of hair with drugs is not widespread.

A summary of the results of a series of studies of nonresponse and measurement error in the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) is given in this chapter. Two studies not previously reported, the Skip Pattern Experiment and the Census Match Study, are the primary focus of the chapter. The Skip Pattern Experiment involved a test of a modified NHSDA questionnaire that made extensive use of skip patterns in drug use questions. Compared to the standard NHSDA method, which avoids skip patterns, the modified questionnaire tended to produce lower rates of reported drug use. The Census Match Study involved linking 1990 NHSDA nonrespondent cases with data from the 1990 Decennial Census. Household and individual data for NHSDA nonrespondents were obtained from the Census and used to characterize NHSDA nonresponse patterns in detail. A multilevel logistic model of response propensity identified the important predictors of nonresponse, including characteristics of the sampled person, the selected household, the neighborhood, and the interviewer.